Friday, August 20,1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 3
Rowers seek recruits on campus
Kansas rowing assistant coach Jennifer Myers recruited walk-ons yesterday on the front lawn of Strong Hall. Their season begins Oct. 2. Photo by Christina Neff/KANSAN
Bv Shawn Linenberaer
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Look in any newspaper and you'll find sports stories describing coaches blazing the recruiting trails, searching and competing frantically for quality recruits.
For the Kansas rowing team, the process takes place in its own back yard.
Assistant coach Jennifer Myers offered potential walk-ons information about rowing tryouts yesterday in front of Strong Hall. Myers also will be on the front lawn of Strong Hall from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. today.
"We hope to have around 100 prospects sign up," Myers said. "They go through a six-week tryout program. We then keep around 25 to 30 rowers."
The Jayhawks signed three recruits with rowing experience in May. Galina Levin and Jennifer Van Ruyven of St. Catherine's, Ontario, Canada, and Sara Stuart of Severa Park, Md.
Most recruits, however, are landed as walk-ons during the first two days of school. Myers said.
Recruits come from a variety of backgrounds. Yesterday, in front of Strong Hall, some prospects who had high school experience were from Texas, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and the West Coast. Many, though, such as Hanna Dreling, Augusta sophomore, are regional prospects looking into a new sport. Drelling played volleyball throughout high school and said she wanted to get back into athletics.
"Most recruits are freshmen, but we've had a few sonhomores also." she said.
"The taller you are the better." Myers said.
"The ideal rowing height is 5-foot or taller."
Inexperienced rowers usually come from basketball and volleyball backgrounds.
"I haven’t done sports for a while and I’ve missed it," Dreling said. "I tried intramurals last year and would get frustrated because I wouldn’t have any fun."
The team will have an informational meeting at 4:30 p.m. Monday in Wagnon Student Athlete Center.
Kansas begins its rowing season Oct. 2 at the Head of the Ohio Ragdanna near Pittsburgh, Pa.
—Edited by Darin Peschka
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Most Big 12 stadiums receive face-lifts
By Michael T. Riag
Kansan sportswriter
By Michael T. Rigg sports@kansan.com
Renovations at Kansas' Memorial Stadium will cost upwards of $26 million.
However, that price is small for a move that Kansas officials say will transform the 78-year-old stadium and will help football recruiting immensely.
The Jayhawks aren't the only team that thinks renovations will move its program a step ahead of the rest of the Big 12 Conference and a step toward landing bigger-name recruits.
Nine other Big 12 teams have made drastic football stadium renovations during the past five years, making the multi-million dollar overhaul of Memorial Stadium simply an effort to keep pace with the rest of the conference.
"I know we've just gotten equal to several other conference schools in terms of facilities," said Rob Bowlks, administrative assistant for Kansas football. "In the past, we were behind. We're more comparable to the best teams in the conference now."
Cross-state rival Kansas State has added 8,000 seats to Wagner Field in a $12.8 million project. Missouri is planning to replace its press box with a press-and-suite megabox to the tune of $10.5 million in time for the 200 season.
Also, conference opponents Colorado, Iowa State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech have all have completed or have plans for major improvements sometime in the near future.
Among those teams are the five-time National Champion Nebraska Cornhuskers, who, with their 30,000 square-foot weight room and 72,700-seat stadium, are regarded as the owners of the conference's best. The Cornhusker brass just pumped $36.1 million into Nebraska's Memorial Stadium, which includes 42 skyboxes, a club seating area, a lounge and renovated concourses. Nebraska coach Frank Solich said that he hoped that the renovations would give Nebraska a recruiting edge and keep the Cornhuskers looking down at the rest of the Big 12.
BIG 12 NORTH IMPROVEMENTS SINCE 1994
Kent Brown, sports information director at K-State, said that the pride a university takes in such new facilities was what impressed recruits the most.
Colorado: $5.2 million (1999)
Grass surface at Folsom Field and new video board
- Iowa State: $19 million (1994-96)
New press box, football complex and grass surface at Jack Trice Stadium
■ Kansas $31.17 million (1998-99) Indoor practice renovations, press box, video board, and concourse renovations at Memorial Stadium
New study facilities, video board, and seating capacity increases at Wagner Field
[1998-99]
Missouri: $22.5 million (1997-
2000)
New press box, video board, grass sur-
curpure renovations on挖窿 at
Forgeur Field.
Nebraska: $36.1 million (1998-
99)
Kansas State: $16.4 million
New press box and renovated concourses at Memorial Stadium
grass, but I do think that turf generally winds up on the negative side of the lists when they start to make up their minds with recruiting. I love it. I love coaching on it, and the players, for the most part, are extremely happy that we're going to be on grass."
—Edited by Mike Loader
Kansas plans the switch to grass, something seven other Big 12 teams have done, sometime in the next five years. However, fund-raising efforts must be completed in order to build a track stadium, which will lead to the track removal at Memorial Stadium and the resurfacing of the field.
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"I don't know if a lot of athletes decide where they're going to attend school according to the size of a press box, but it has accounted for additional revenue and it has given Kansas State a lot of pride in the program," Brown said.
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"I think it's a recruiting asset," said Colorado coach Gary Barnett. "I don't think very many kids decide one way or the other because there's turf or
Another of Kansas' chief competitors, Colorado, also is planning a facility change. The artificial grass on Folsum Field will be replaced with a natural surface and a new video board will be installed inside the stadium.
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